I bought this harp 3 years ago when I first started. I was addicted to these harps at that time. I am now addicted to the Golden Melody, but I think I'm having withdrawal symptoms. Should I feed my old habit that I managed to kick? The wood was so lovely, the smell was so clean and true, and, Oh, the ringing of cowbells from far away. When I played this harp, it used to take me in my mind up to the top of a mountain with Fräulein Gunter von Winkelmann and her cows. I don't know if my memory is playing tricks on me, as the harp may not be as good as I once thought it was, but at least I married Gunter von Winkelmann. Oh, what shall I do? Thank you Ronnie for reigniting the embers of my past, my rapid heartbeat for Frau Winkelmann, and for the milking of the cows. 💕
I had to laugh when you said "not too shabby" after playing such a great sounding tune right out of the box. Thank you for this. What you can pull out of a harp is sooo good.:)
I started with this model, also tried others, than went back to this one. This harp has that rounded dark and floating sound, that's why I like it. From my experience, The Blues Harp is better than Marine Band.
Same here! Started with a BH in C… then tried everything… almost… SP20 and MB which I still love… to phosphor bronze Suzukis and steel Seydel. The Blue Harp has the perfect shape for my mouth, the doussie wood is almost hydro repellent (it’s used for bathroom flooring!) and the sound is sweet and mellow with a little raspy feeling. Totally love it!
I have several of these in various keys ! I like them ! Hope things are going well back in Colorado! Sorry I missed your gig back here in Champaign recently with dig three ! I was playing elsewhere! Stay true to what you do! Everyone appreciates it believe me! ✌🏻😎
Back in the '70's when Hohners were very inexpensive, I purchased a number of Marine Bands, even the 365 models. A fella turned me on to the Blues Harps. I purchased a number of different keys. I still have them. Because I had so many harps, I never played them often, other than the C and G, which I wore out, but the other keys are as good as new, with nails.
I am the first person to view this! I’m a huge fan of yours, and as a fan of most types of music-especially the Blues. I used to play the guitar as often as I walked past one of the 3 I kept: 1 in my basement with my Marshall cabinets and Fender amp; 1 on the main floor and 1 upstairs in the bedroom. I lived, loved and listened to everything guitar and my personal "favourite" was Jeff Beck. I’m 52, and broke my neck at work when I was 21, about eleven years after I first picked up a guitar and started learning how to play it. I bought "Truth" before most of my friends had heard of The Yardbirds, let alone knew that THE THREE biggest names in guitar to come out of Britain in the ‘60s…that belonged to guys born in Britain. Anyways, after my accident I picked up one of the two harps I had-it was just like the one in this video. This was in 1993 & the first live act I went to see after my accident was "Blues Traveller". I practiced how to bend notes-I had to use one of those harmonica holders-and I could play along with Led Zeppelin’s 1st album almost entirely. I suppose that’s because almost every song is written in the key of E, (and my only Hohner was a Blues Harp in the key of A), and I could play along with 2 songs, then I’d get lightheaded. It’s such an amazing little instrument, the harmonica is, in its many different "tunings-🤷🏻♂️". I’m so happy to have found this channel, I really enjoy listening to you explain theory. The first instrument I learned to play was the accordion and my teacher was my Mom. I learned to read music, and my mother’s mood for about two years and then my folks split and Mom had to work, raise two kids and go to school so there wasn’t any time left to teach me how to play a Polka like Paganini! Then the classroom learned how to play Ukulele and not long after that I saw Jimi Hendrix playing the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock and I knew that I wanted to play THAT white Strat. One day when I was buying a box of E strings-(I got a Strat & quickly started using "tens" instead of ‘8s’ to get more life out of the high E string)-& saw a Hohner Blues Harp that was marked as HALF PRICE! I was familiar with a couple of blues players, Little Walter, Huey Lewis. That’s the same harp I have today, one of them and one of my favourites.
Yeah, my iPhone flips the video. I’ll see if I can fix that for the next one that I record on my phone. My apologies if I am murdering the pronunciation of the wood. Could be pronounced "doosee". Not sure. Anyone out there know? lol.
You gotta love the PRAH SEULB! Love your playing style Ronnie, always have, always will :) Blues Harp is one of those love-hate models, I had students come in with it and I told them - put it aside, get SP20 or LOH and lets start learning from scratch before you can get back to this one as a moderate/advance player. Handling more air, wooden comb, some setup which is required to get ahead with bending and overbending - that is NOT something you can recommend a beginner, especially those who are learning online and you cannot help them with their embouchures and some player set-up. Still - I LOVE this model more than MB - everything in it is classic - the sandwich, the comb, covers, the blue box, even the need for setup :) Funny that 3 months ago, you and several other YTbers made a review on this model - Hohner having a re-issue or something? Great harp, not easy to control so you need to stick with it and make some changes if needed, a wonderful review! Cheers
You can swap-out plates on most Hohner harmonicas. If your local music store refuses to order them, you can buy them directly from Hohner. Hope this helps :-)
I have fond memories with the Hohner Blues Harp. It was the first harmonica I bought that wasn't the Hohner Special 20. I personally don't mind this harp. It has a great tone and is airtight, I'm just not a fan of the wooden comb. I'm genuinely surprised that this harp gets a lot of hate for some odd reason. Not as much as the Hohner Golden Melody inside blues circles, but it does have some hate. Maybe they're confusing it for the Bluesband. I genuinely don't know. I currently play Golden Melodies (the old design), but it was the Blues Harp that got me into the sandwich style harps that I love.
I had an E which sounded incredible. I still have a Solid E in my collection, but the Blues Harp swelled and died. Maybe I'll pick up another one if I see one on my travels. It had probably the best sound of all.
Hi Ronnie, great video as always. I've always liked my Blues Harp (absolutely love the blue and gold case), but understood it to be a very unpopular model along with the other MS harps. I'm curious if the higher gapping has any benefit to non-beginners/players who have practiced the amount of force they play with.
I use Blues Harps almost exclusively and they are modified. The guy puts a screw in it somewhere that reduces the leakage, finely sands the holes, seals the wood and sanitizes everything. He can also do things like make a Blues Harp (or whatever) with a plastic comb.
Sugar Blue playing on BH. /// Я купил в 2007м году Blues Harp Ab, она до сих пор играет, держит настройку. Только надо чистить периодически и обрабатывать гребëнку маслом грецкого ореха. У неë большая воздухопотеря, многие на ней начинали из старичков, которых мы знаем.
I invented a practice harp that plays white noise. A venturi effect, constricted section (or choke) of a pipe, makes white noise. Each of 10 holes is consecutively tuned to a certain pitch. It's molded as one piece. A key component is an app to convert white noise into wave table. Somewhat like sound cancellation technology except actual sound is replaced by equivalent audio waveform. Comes in all keys. Costs under $10. App is a free download.
Ya..I could have fixed that in post edit, now that I've researched it..quite simple. That's the default setting on the iphone front facing camera. I agree..annoying.
I started with Marine Bands. Then, for a while, I transitioned to the Blues Harp. Now, most of my harps are Special 20s. The wooden comb seems less forgiving when moisture gets inside and a reed gets stuck. I found myself replacing harps quite often. In fact, I once had to replace my A harp twice within a month or two. On the Special 20, with its plastic comb, I find it much easier, when I notice moisture affecting a reed, to blow it out and keep on going. I don’t have to replace them nearly as often.
The Hohner Blues harp is the model that motivated to look for alternate comb options. I love the tone, but cannot play an unsealed comb for more than a few minutes before it begins to swell. I would not be able to recommend this model for a newer player for this reason. Stick with the sealed or abs combs for rookies.
Swelling after a few MINUTES? 😨 What is it made of? Sponge? Anyway I have replaced the comb of my BH in C with an Andrew Zajac comb… nit bad, but I lost the unique raspy sound of that particular wood.
